Good Time

It took me a while to get past the opening of this movie. It was a personal thing as the flick involves a mentally disabled adult and as the parent of two autistic kids I generally can’t handle seeing those depictions on screen. 

But after a brief set up, a bank robbery and a trip to jail the movie moves director Bennie Safdie’s Nick Nikas off screen and spends the rest of its time with Robert Pattinson’s dirtbag criminal. 

And I have no triggers for hanging out with dirtbag criminals. 

Pattinson delivers a mountain of nervous scumbag energy and he’s absolutely willing to be evil on screen. And not like justifiable evil, not that sort of movie star evil where you believe he actually has a good reason for what he does. 

He has his reasons, but it’s hollow nonsense. Nearly everyone he comes in contact with is destroyed and you know Patinson’s Connie Nikas would skate away from all that terrible responsibility — he’d blame everyone around him and God — before he ever took responsibility for his actions. 

The Safdie’s are masters of pressure cooker movies. I always describe Uncut Gems as a heart attack disguised as a film. 

This doesn’t quite reach that point, in part, because I wanted Connie Nikas to get caught as soon as humanly possible and I wanted Sandler’s scuzzy jewelry dealer to get away with it. 

Pattinson and Safdie are joined by Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays a perfect drug addled girlfriend and Taliah Webster is solid as a teenager over her head. 

The Safdie’s also deploy two non-actors; Peter Verby as a counselor and Eric Paykert as a bail bondsman. 

The scenes with both of them are strong but Paykert in particular delivers the truth on film. 

I was not surprised to find out that he was a real bail bondsman and was simply having another day at work while the cameras were rolling. 

You know that scene in Goodfellas where Ray Liota meets with the district attorney who was, in fact, the real attorney who really confronted the real Henry Hill?

There’s just an authenticity there that can’t be faked. 

I will say that I want to see the cut scenes where Eric Roberts played the bail bondsman. I bet they were stellar in a different way. 

Anyway, if you love stress movies this is a sure thing.